HOUSTON — A Houston-based oil-and-gas giant is joining the fight against COVID-19 by re-purposing its 3-D printers to make personal protective equipment for health care workers which is in short supply worldwide.
Baker Hughes frequently uses 3-D printing in its oil and gas services, such as printing metal drill bits.
But Scott Parent, vice president of engineering and technology, said they have never made this type of medical equipment before.
The oil-and-gas company started laser-cutting plastic face shields and printing the headbands those shields attach to for health care workers fighting coronavirus in Houston.
"The need is there, and these are communities where our employees work," said Parent. "It's exciting from a standpoint that we really feel like we can make a difference here."
Parent said they have been using open source designs, which come from the company's suppliers and partners and allows them to produce face shields more quickly.
"Within a few weeks of understanding the problem, we were in production," said Parent. "Speed was really the message we got, understanding that we’re in lockdown and we still haven’t hit peak or we’re just getting to peak."
Baker Hughes teamed up with TXRX Labs, a non-profit makerspace that recently converted its 3-D printing operations to focus on personal protective equipment, or PPE.
Together, they put together 10,000 face shields for health care workers in the Memorial Hermann Health network. Baker Hughes is also working on another 3,000 face shields for Baylor College of Medicine, in partnership with Texas A&M.
"There’s so much uncertainty now it’s hard for people to know how much PPE they will need," said Roland von Kurnatowski, president of TXRX Labs. "The CDC has relaxed a lot these requirements because it’s better to have something than nothing."
TXRX Labs is also producing intubation aerosol containment boxes: clear plastic barriers that are placed over a COVID-19 patient. Memorial Hermann ordered 50 of those.
Von Kurnatowski said TXRX Labs is fulfilling Memorial Hermann's face shield order on an as-needed basis so that supplies are not left sitting shelves that could be helping other strapped health care facilities.
He said after one delivery, hospital staff offered for him to come see the COVID-19 ward, an offer he said was hard to ultimately turn down.
“Boy, standing outside the hospital and realizing that there’s a bunch of people dying inside and you’re not one of the people who that has to go in there and take care of them and put yourself at risk, sure does seem to put a lot of things way down the totem pole in terms of importance," said von Kurnatowski.
For Parent, this fight is personal, too. He said Friday that some Baker Hughes employees have become infected with COVID-19.
"To secure the lives and safety of our employees and our community is very rewarding. It’s also very humbling," said Parent.